He was silent for a moment. “I will,” he promised, his voice soft. They drove the rest of the way in silence.

China and Eliza Scorn were fighting in the street when they reached the tenement building. The Bentley screeched to a halt and Skulduggery and Valkyrie leaped out.

“Hey!” Valkyrie roared. “Get away from her!”

Scorn rammed China into the side of the car. China staggered, caught a punch right on the hinge of the jaw that dropped her to her knees. Scorn kicked her full force in the belly and China folded.

Skulduggery’s gun was in his hand. Scorn crouched low, using China as a shield.

“Don’t shoot,” Scorn called.

“Stand up and move away,” Skulduggery ordered.

“So you have a clear shot? I don’t think so.”

China moaned as she sucked in air. “Kill her,” she managed. “She’s… got a… bomb.”

“I have a bombshell,” Scorn corrected, “of information.”

“What’s that in your hand?” Skulduggery asked.

Scorn smiled. She was holding a small black cylinder with a red button on top. “OK, fine, I do have an actual bomb too. A few bombs, in fact. Small ones, but you work with what you’ve got. They’re spread around the library, and there are a few in China’s apartment, too. Don’t worry, there’s nobody up there. No one’s going to get hurt.”

Skulduggery thumbed back the hammer of his gun. “Drop the switch.”

“I’m not going to do that.”

“If you press that button, you’ll end up in a cell.”

“I don’t think I will. I think, when I do press this button, you’re going to let me walk away.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because I have information you’re going to find very interesting. I’ve been researching this over the last few months, actually. Do you remember the day your family died?”

“It’s always amusing,” Skulduggery said, “when someone tries to use that to goad me into doing something.”

“Oh, I’m not goading you. I’m genuinely asking.” Ever so slowly, Scorn stood up straight. “I wasn’t even in the country at the time. I think I was in Spain, doing a thing. Anyway, Nefarian Serpine – great guy, by the way – needed to throw you off balance, needed you distracted, needed you to get angry and stop thinking straight. So obviously, killing your wife and kid in front of you was the only reasonable way to do that. He wasn’t well, that man. He had issues, you know what I mean? He needed to distract you and the only thing he could come up with was to murder your family? Not have someone wave to you, or something? But that was him all over, wasn’t it? He went to extremes, and this was one of them.”